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Friday, October 23, 2015

Review: How to Seduce a Scot (Broadswords and Ballrooms #1) by Christy English

He's the terror of the ton...The plan is simple: 1. Descend from the Highlands to face the aggravation of a London Season; 2. Foist his wild sister off on some gullible English lord; 3. Retreat before the ladies of the scandalized ton can get any ideas.

Determined to see his hellion of a sister wed, Highlander
Alexander Waters is willing to face anything-even the English. He just
didn't expect his own rough manners to cause such a riot...or for a
blooming English rose to catch his eye.

Gently bred Catherine
Middlebrook must find a respectable man to marry or her family will be
ruined. She won't allow herself to be distracted by Highland
barbarians...no matter how her body may thrill whenever Alex is near.

Catherine
wasn't part of the plan, but as their battle of wills escalates, Alex
comes to realize this "proper" English girl is as wild as the Highlands
themselves...and nothing will stop him from having her.

Oh, I do love me a good bodice ripper! I've always wondered if historical romance authors hated that term ... anyhow ... this is a good bodice ripper! I've read, I don't know ... hundreds ... of historical romance novels and I've become quite picky with my reviews. I've just read so many that I've had to become more discerning in order to figure out what kind of rating that they each should receive. Anyhow, this one will not disappoint you. At all. Actually, it's one of my favorite books for the year so far.

The majority of the time, I read books on my Kindle and for one reason only ... I can take notes! With two kiddos, I don't remember my own name by the end of the day, let alone what I thought about a book I'm reading. Usually I have at least ten notes for each book and on this one, I didn't have a single one. Now, that can happen for two reasons ... either it was so unremarkable that I just didn't think anything or it could be because I was so wrapped up in the novel that I just didn't want to take the time to step away from what I was reading to note something. This time, it was the latter.

There was something just magical about this book. I can't really put my finger on what it was exactly that just kept me totally hooked. It was probably just a culmination of a bunch of things. First of all, I loved the characters. I loved Catherine from the very beginning of the novel ... and her sister and mom and then Alexander and his sister ... I just loved every single one. I couldn't wait to turn the page and see what they had gotten themselves into or what they were saying to each other. And the interactions between characters ... oh, the interactions. Christy English writes some awesome dialogue!! The conversations that would go on between these characters was just so realistic that you feel that you are right there, witnessing it happening in front of you. I'd imagine that is something very difficult to achieve, especially with historical romance novels. The language can be so strange and foreign to someone who isn't familiar with it and it can feel stuffy and stuck up. Thankfully, Christy English knows what she is doing and she was absolutely fabulous.

I also enjoyed the chemistry between all of the characters ... even the cooks, servants and workers in the house left their own little footprint on the novel and the novel was elevated that much more just for that reason. I know that I'll be reading another novel by this author, it was so realistic that I want to see if other novels by her are written the same way. If they are ... it would seem that I have another author to put on my watch list!

I did love the book but I also only gave it 4 stars and that is because it did feel a little long in the tooth in some places and I thought that it bogged the story down just a little bit. But it was really close to being a 5 star book for me!